Traditional ERP Implementations

Traditional ERP implementations can be extremely high-risk, for the partner deploying them and also for the customer. For this reason no one offers the elusive fixed fee. The potential risks are simply an excessive amount of.

The previous Dynamics NAV project costs were high because legacy methods are expensive. The typical implementation follows many phases originally lay out by Microsoft in a waterfall project framework. Waterfall project management has been confirmed to get more expensive than the modern “agile” approach, which is determined by LEAN techniques.

The approach which has been employed by virtually everyone since ERP ‘s been around is usually to bill “Time and Material.” Which means that customers purchase some time spent by consultants, nomatter how good or bad they’re. This moves the chance in the implentor towards the customer almost entirely.

In fact there are still massive risks for your partner using these waterfall projects. I’ve come across MANY cases where partners were sued or threatened when these projects go very badly.

I started thinking of the way we necessary to change this looking at a LinkedIn post that shared an article on why “Time and Material Billing is Unethical.” I became really struck through the arguments. Mcdougal asked something i think summed it up fantastically well:

If your restaurant charged you for the serious amounts of material who’s loved cook your steak, how does one feel?

This probably sparked my first real thoughts about how you can~the way to~tips on how to~the best way to~ways to stop as being a time and material business.

ERP Prices are incredibly unpredictable

The primary videos that we uploaded to YouTube was my explanation of why traditional costing of ERP implementations was outrageously inaccurate. I’ve spent recent years since working out approaches to remove that inaccuracy.

Obviously the easiest method to give accurate estimates ended up being to be fixed fee. Unfortunately that traditional approach is so high risk for that partner. It can make it truly scary to provide a fixed fee. if you do not do it right, you have a great deal of trouble. We’ve worked very hard to develop a strategy i think is different.

Applying LEAN Thinking to ERP Implementations

There is a movement to make use of LEAN thinking to service activities. Generally, LEAN is around removing waste from your physical product, however it does apply to projects too.

I invented my own, personal variations of waste in ERP projects.

First – there’s time spent by the wrong resource.

That is typically if somebody who is too expensive does a thing that somebody who pays significantly less are able to do, or are capable of doing it faster.

Second – you can find unnecessary steps

I’ve found this occurs when people perform steps to “cover their butts.” Lots of project management falls into this. What’s more, it comes about when consultants (compensated on hours billed) push unnecessary work.

Third – there are wasted tasks

Sometimes customers wish to accomplish issues that we, as ERP consultants, know won’t work. In the traditional implementation we now have no economic motivation to stop it.

Lastly – there’s a “bleed” of information

This is usually on the customer. Typically it’s once the customer doesn’t remember their training because they do not spending some time in the device enough.

Why ERP Implementations Need to Change!

Whenever we started doing cloud based ERP implementations with Microsoft Dynamics NAV it had been common for patrons to cover $100,000 to the software and pay $200,000 because of their implementation.

When you enter the realm of the cloud, where Microsoft Business Central is $100 per month per user, things change. It’s hart to share with a person they’re going to spend $2000 monthly for software but still pay $200,000 for implementation.

And we all did what our customers do. We set an expense we thought the market would support, and we worked backwards to regulate our internal costs and make money doing that. Our company is companies. They should estimate a cost, after which stay with it. They can’t go to their customer and say “we should bill you more because we had been inefficient within our production process.” They might go out of business instantly.

The modern procedure for ERP implentations.

I’m really a producing expert compared to a technology expert. Few manufacturing companies think regarding projects with project managers (Engineer to Order is the exception). Many of them think when it comes to operations managers and standard work instructions.

I applied this thinking to ERP projects. It may help that every we all do is implement ERP for companies.

Here’s will be the main steps that helped us dramatically reduce the risk (and expenses) of ERP projects.

We just do one type of projectFocusing exclusively on manufacturing, along with small facilities, meant that we’re able to refine and acquire better with each project. We look at the process as a repetitive, repetable process. This kind of gets rid of the in advance kind of the job plan etc. The job management disappears altogether, so we reduce that waste enormously.

We offset easy but tedious try to the customerWhen a $200 per hour consultant does what amounts to a clerical task, that’s waste. We train the customers to do many of the tedious tasks. Apparently , kinds much better made by the buyer. Business Central makes a lot of this easier because it has great tools for end users to perform tasks that was once hard. There’s 2 of the particularly which are key: Reports and Data Loading

We train visitors to edit formsCustomers know very well what they want their invoice to check like. They do know where they desire the deadline on the PO. It’s way easier if we help them learn to change these items than do it for them.

We train visitors to load data to the systemData loading is often a task we assign to some co-op student after a few hours training. The fact is, when customers “get” how this is achieved – they actually do a much better job cleaning their data and things go much smoother!

We keep workout sessions shorter and VideoPeople forget what they are taught. It’s without a doubt of life. You have a lot on your own plate. Also, the more an individual spends in training – greater they “zone out” and begin to lose focus. We keep exercise sessions short, and record every one of them as videos. People absorb countless can certainly review what they’ve got forgotten. This implies we absolutely must train remotely. Travel time is really a killer (and totally waste)- and we all can’t travel.

We maintain the project tight, and discourage changeTraditional ERP partners encourage work. Extra work means extra profit. Not for individuals. If we perform Business Central project, we discourage any changes through the original project. Our projects aren’t super restrictive – nonetheless they do limit the characteristics we’ll implement in “Phase 1.” By continuing to keep the program tight, there is a lot less “creep” as well as the boss is generally much happier.

We still bill for customizations, but discourage them Customizations would be the one thing we’re not able to predict – therefore we also discourage them. Given this new model, look for customers require a lot fewer also. They trust us more to understand we’re doing. Occasionally a customization is only a no-brainer, plus those cases we support and even encourage them. Even so – we’ve got less than 50 % the customization we utilized to.

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